J. Frank Wheaton, Minnesota law pioneer!


John Wheaton
Date: 
Thu, 1866-02-22

*The birth of John Frank Wheaton is celebrated on this date in 1866. He was an African-American politician.

He was born in Hagerstown, Maryland where his father claimed to be the first black man to vote in that state. Wheaton was educated at Stover College in Harpers Ferry, Va., and at Howard University. He moved to Minnesota in 1890, living at 1011 East Twenty-Eighth Street. There he enrolled in college and became the first African American to graduate from the University of Minnesota Law School. Among the many positions that he held were a clerk in Congress, clerk in state legislature, and clerk of municipal court.

In 1896, Wheaton was elected a member of the Minnesota delegation to the Republican Convention in St. Louis. Wheaton was the first black man elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1898 from a predominantly immigrant district. He was a supporter of civil rights and lobbied for the commissioning of Black officers during the Spanish American War. John Wheaton died in 1938.

Reference:
Minnesota Historical Society
345 W. Kellogg Blvd.
Saint Paul, MN 55102-1906

To become a Politician

Person / name: 

Wheaton, J. Frank